


Together

by youlostpleiad



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Avengers: Endgame Fixit fic, Canon Divergence - Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Fix It Fic, Minor Character Death, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Other characters mentioned - Freeform, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-14
Updated: 2019-06-14
Packaged: 2020-05-07 10:53:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19207909
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/youlostpleiad/pseuds/youlostpleiad
Summary: "I am inevitable," he snapped his fingers but nothing happened.So what next?





	Together

**Author's Note:**

> I do not like Avengers: Endgame.  
> Now that that's out of the way, this is more of a rewrite than a fic, there are no pairings that aren't canon, and there was no relationship significant enough to mention in the tags. I wrote this because I wanted a better ending (not that the rest of it was any better).  
> Things we assume going into this the stones were destroyed in 2018. Changing anything in the past creates an alternate timeline (new timelines don't happen just when the stones leave a timeline as M&M said). Loopholes are a thing.
> 
> PLEASE READ THE END NOTES WHEN YOU'RE DONE

"I am inevitable," he snapped his fingers but nothing happened. 

 

Tony raises his hand, the Infinity Stones being moved by the nanotech in his suit until they settled in position. The power that coursed through him making him tremble, it was too much.

 

"And I," he started, "am-" 

 

"Stark, no!" Rocket yelled over the comms, "Danvers hold Thanos down. Stark, listen to me you can't do that by yourself, it will kill you. If there's anyone close to him hold hands and make a chain." 

 

"I'm sorry, we're in a battle and you want to hold hands?" Tony asked just as Pepper showed up next to him and held his hand. He was about to ask why still not knowing what was the point of it. Until he felt less heavy, less pressured, the power leaving him, not all of it, enough that he stopped feeling like breathing was painful. 

 

Pepper grunted lightly as the power flowed through her, but it didn't stop the smile that took over her face, "Tony." 

 

"Yeah, the raccoon's a fucking genius," he smiled. For the first time since this battle had started Tony felt like he could do the right thing without sacrificing his second chance. Then Peter took Pepper's free hand and Steve took Peter's and while none of them knew why they were doing it soon they were all there, the spared and the fallen, forming a circle around Carol and Thanos. Rocket flew over Tony's shoulder and settled there, holding his tiny paw out to Wanda, closing the loop but leaving Tony's hand free for what still had to be done.

 

"Now what, Rabbit?" Thor asked.

 

"What do we do Tin Man?" Rocket asked.

 

Tony looked up "We focus on getting rid of them," he turned to his left to find Steve's eyes, "Together." 

 

Steve smiled, "Yeah. Together." 

 

"Lovely moment," Carol said from the floor where she was still holding down Thanos, "but I'm getting tired of laying here, so consider hurrying up." 

 

"Right, sorry," Tony said, "Everyone focus," he closed his eyes and thought of Peter dying in his arms 5 years ago, he thought of hugging him again just minutes before, he thought of Pepper, and Happy, and Morgan, watching her grow, and being there for her at every step of the way. He saw Thanos' army disappear, he saw him stay behind so he'd know he had lost and only then join his disciples, he snapped his fingers. The army crumbled, one by one they fell, Carol let go of Thanos and he sat watching in sorrow as his plan failed. Only when the last of the Chitauri turned to dust did Thanos follow suit, there in the wreckage of the Avengers Compound, surrounded by not just Earth's but the Cosmos' Mightiest Heroes he disintegrated like so many had before because of him, it was finally over. "F.R.I.D.A.Y. drop the right-hand portion of the suit." 

 

"Yes, boss." It slid of Tony's hand still carrying the stones and fell with a thud to the ground. The power no longer flowing through all of them. Tony let Rocket jump off his shoulder before letting himself slip to the ground, taking deep breaths. He thought he would die. He thought his daughter would grow up without a father. He thought his wife would have to bury him. Instead, he was just sat on the floor after winning the biggest battle of his life. Pepper threw her arms around him. The mask of her armour slipping back.

 

"You're a goddamn idiot, you know?" He told her.

 

"I'm struggling to see how I'm the idiot here," she was speaking into his neck, hugging Tony so close and hard that he was afraid their armours would dent.

 

"I go off on a suicide mission, another suicide mission and you come and help me? We could have died, the both of us, but you came anyway because the world needed you and I needed you too. I love you. You're a hero Ms Potts, and all heroes are idiots," he pressed his lips to her forehead. He got everyone back and got to keep his second chance too, "Let's go home," he told her, "Clean up can wait and I'm scared Happy will feed Morgan nothing but cheeseburgers," he looked at Peter, "you too, kid. We’ll stop and get May on the way. There's someone you gotta meet." 

 

**

 

"You need to return each stone to the moment it was taken from, otherwise we may end up screwing up an entire timeline. The time stone lady never told me anything about the dangers of two of the same stone in one universe so we should do this one stone at a time, I'm not risking opening a black hole or something," Bruce told Steve and Tony.

 

"Sounds fun," Tony said, "How are we splitting the stones, Captain?" 

 

"Well, I have to return the Reality Stone to Asgard because the hammer needs to go back. I'll take Space and Soul too, you can do the rest," Steve said.

 

"You sure that's a good idea?" 

 

"Yeah. Yeah, it's gonna be fun." 

 

"Alright then. Yeet me the Power Stone," Tony said. He broke into a smile when he saw Steve's confused face, "Peter and May came over for dinner again last night, my language is apparently not current enough," he said still smiling like an idiot. He couldn't be blamed, he was happy, "Morgan is really excited to have met him." 

 

Steve's heart tightened in his chest. He was glad Tony had kept his family and still gotten Peter back. Steve was so happy to have Bucky, Sam, Wanda, everyone back at his side, but he kept thinking about Natasha. He couldn't stop thinking about how she, more than anyone, deserved to see them succeed. She had spent the last five years trying to keep everything and everyone from falling apart and now that they had finally done it she didn't get to enjoy it. It wasn't fair. 

 

"I'm glad they're getting along," he settled with saying, "you finally caught a break." 

 

"You next,” Tony tells him. Steve really wishes he could.

 

“Let’s get on with this,” Steve said stepping onto the platform taking hold of the vial containing the aether.

 

“How safe is this?” Sam asked.

 

“How dare you? I built it,” Tony replied with mock offense, “It’s safe, your boyfriend’s not getting lost in the past wingman, don’t worry so much.”

 

Steve and Tony stood on the machine waiting for Bruce’s countdown. 

 

** 

The first thing to cross Tony's mind when he stepped foot on Morag was how far he had come since the last time he’d been to space. Shit, he’d been to space more than once. Somewhere along the timeline, there was a younger Tony dreaming of doing just that. He should really make plans to come back sometime he could enjoy it. 

 

At least this time the mission was simpler. Quill was still knocked out, he had been hit in the head by War Machine just minutes before so that was expected, and Rhodey had already left, all Tony had to do was find the Power Stone Temple and wait for Nebula to wake up and leave. Part of him wanted to help her escape, make it so Thanos could never take her and hurt her again, but it was unwise to create an alternate timeline so he waited until he saw her leave the temple to walk inside and place it where it belonged. 

 

He pressed the button.  _ One down. _

 

**

 

Steve found himself in the middle of a hallway in Asgard's palace. There was only one door near him, he almost prayed that Thor hadn't messed up the coordinates so all he had to do was walk into Jane's room. He walked up to the door and saw her leave through a different entrance. That was no good. He looked around the room trying to figure out how to make this work. 

 

The bed. She'd have to return to it eventually and the sheets were covering the space between it and the floor. It would have to do. 

 

He threw the Hammer out of the window hoping it wouldn't hit anything, crawled under Jane's bed and waited. Part of him knew Thor would have died if hadn't picked up the Hammer when he did. The rest of him was really resenting that stupid decision, he wouldn't have been to one to have to stab a woman with an infinity stone if he hadn't picked up the damn hammer. 

 

"Jane, you simply must return to bed," a woman with an accented voice said walking into the room. 

 

"I'm feeling a lot better I promise," another woman replied. Jane, Steve assumed recognizing her voice from the few of her interviews he'd seen.

 

"I'm sure you are, dear. Please, just ease my conscience while I get the doctor to check up on you, alright?" 

 

"I suppose I could do that." 

 

Her footsteps became closer and closer to the bed, and Steve got ready. 

 

"I'll be back soon. Don't leave bed." 

 

He waited until he could no longer hear the woman's footsteps and rolled out from under the bed. Rising to his knees finding Jane laying in bed with her back to him. Oh, this was a terrible idea, and Steve should know. He'd had his fair share. He didn't let himself overthink it, his arm moved quickly and the device pierced the skin of her back. Luckily the stone seemed happy to have a host again because it left the vial instantly, he pressed the button on the device as soon as it was over. And if Jane Foster was to tell anyone a man stabbed her and then magically disappeared, well then they'd have to blame it on the Aether. Well, that or Loki.  They'd probably go with Loki.

 

_ Four to go. _

 

**

 

"Oh that was painful," Tony said as soon as they were back on the platform.

 

"I just hid under a bed so I could stab a woman with a liquid stone. What do  _ you _ mean 'that was painful'?" 

 

"You- you hid under her bed?" Tony asked before hunching over laughing, "Oh wow Steve, then lengths have to go too just to get under someone." 

 

Steve rolled his eyes, and slapped Tony's chest with the back of his hand "Shut up and go get the scepter. 2012 me should still be asleep just leave it under him or something." 

 

"Aw Cap! I'm finally gonna get under you!" 

 

Steve sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, "I don't even know how to reply to that," he stepped off the platform picking up the case with the scepter and the one with the Tesseract, he couldn't look at the Soul Stone just yet, "Let's just do this thing." 

 

"I thought you'd never ask!" He said with a grin before looking at the case in Steve's hand, "You sure you wanna put that one back? Not too late to go to New York instead." 

 

"I'm sure." 

 

"Why don't you take Sam or Bucky, they're right there. Not doing anything either." 

 

"Tony," Steve said sternly.

 

"Okay then. Bruce do your thing." 

 

They disappeared off the platform.

 

"What's so special about the stone Steve had?" Bucky asked Bruce.

 

"Uh, he saw Peggy last time they went there." 

 

Bucky's heart caught in his throat.

 

**

 

This was a terrible idea. Honestly, what was Steve even thinking? He wasn't. Clearly, he wasn't. Why would he choose to come back, Tony gave him a way out. Why did always have to be so damn stubborn? 

 

He pulled the sunglasses down on his face and made his way to the building. He was taking the stairs this time, people avoid eye contact in staircases. Plus stairs have the added benefit of not being an enclosed space that he can't escape if he needs too. 

 

So now he's just gotta make it all the way down to the bottom floor where they store all the weapons and find the one case that Tony cut through with his suit among the endless rows of cases and replace it with the new one he's got. 

 

He really should have gone to New York.

 

**

 

Tony was back in Stark Tower. He'd been there twice in a week and the last time before that was years ago. Or years in the future. Both. He missed it some days, mostly he was thankful for how much quieter the compound was. 

 

One perk of the tower though that the ground floor space was much more limited. It shouldn't be hard to find a passed out supersoldier. When he did he was still passed out, just as Steve had said. He took the scepter out the case and slid it next to other Steve's body. Then Tony not so gently aggressively nudged him with his foot. Okay, he kicked him. So what? He couldn't leave an infinity stone laying around when half the building was probably Hydra! Other Steve had to wake up. 

 

Tony kicked him again and he stirred, slowly turned over on his back and he was starting to open his eyes. Now was probably a good time to leave. 

 

He pressed the button.

 

_ Down to three. _

 

**

 

The basement was far bigger than anything Steve had expected, he should have known, he had been there in 2014, but it was different when it wasn't just holding old tech. Tony had told him roughly where he had gotten the Tesseract from so Steve just had to count thirty-seven shelves left from the door and then fourteen into the room and hopefully he'd find a broken case that he could replace with the new one and then he could leave. Quick and easy. 

 

He walked past the first thirty-seven. When he was thirteen into the fourteen he heard voices. 

 

"Don't be daft, of course, we have to check. I don't very much care that you were down here when they reported the breach, Howard," Steve knew that voice. He froze in his spot, but he could see the case he needed to replace, so he kept on walking, it was just a few steps anyway.

 

"Peggy," god Steve hadn't heard Howard's voice since 1945, "There was only one guy down here and he was a visitor from MIT." 

 

"We had no visitors from MIT scheduled for today, you moron," he missed those exasperated sighs, he'd been on the receiving end of them for a long time. 

 

"Then maybe we should start checking our inventory." 

 

"No shit, Sherlock. Where was it that you saw him?" 

 

"Let me walk you to it." 

 

Steve took the final few steps to the case and swapped them as quickly as he could trying to keep noise to a minimum. 

 

He should have pressed the button, he really should have pressed the button. Instead, he hid behind one of the shelves, close enough that he could hear them, but far away enough that he felt he wouldn't get caught. 

 

Peggy and Howard came to a halt in front of the case holding the Tesseract. 

 

"This is where I found him," he told her.

 

"He was here?" She asked him, "Howard you absolute buffoon," she growled at him immediately reaching for the case.

 

"What did I do?" 

 

"Do you not know what's in here? Or what might not be. I swear on my brother's grave, Howard if we lost the Tesseract because you couldn't spot a thief I am going to murder you." Steve smiled at that. It was good to know she was still a spitfire, still ready to fight without ever backing down. His heart was tight in his chest. She opened the box, "Oh thank fuck for that." 

 

"See? Everything is fine!" 

 

"You," she said pointing at Howard, "Don't get to speak. I can't believe you saw a stranger walking about the archives and didn't think anything of it. What were you thinking? Were you thinking at all?" Howard opened his mouth to reply but Peggy cut him off, "Zip it. I don't want to hear a word from you, Howard, possibly forever. You're going upstairs and you're telling every agent with a level 8 or above to come down here so we can check if anything is missing. And then you're leaving because Jarvis is waiting for you, and I hope you know I sincerely regret pulling out of that car because all you've done is aggravate me." 

 

"Well I led you to the Tesseract," he half whispered.

 

"I'm sorry you led me?" She asked before raising her voice, "It's the most valuable thing in here do you think this isn't the first place I would have checked? Please leave before I drag you out myself. And tell Edwin I'm sorry he has to put up with you."  

 

Howard left. Peggy's shoulders came up, she had always done that when she was angry, Steve used to tell her she was gearing up to get in a fist fight, she'd laugh at his words and he'd kiss the place where her neck meets her shoulder. He'd do it over and over again on both sides until he had kissed all the tension away. Suddenly he wanted to do it again. 

 

He couldn't stay there any longer. Not if he didn't want to do something stupid. He pressed the button.

 

_ Just 2 stones left. _

 

**

 

Bucky let go of the breath he had been holding ever since Steve had disappeared from the platform. It had only been a few seconds but they felt like hours. For a second there he really thought he was about to lose him.

 

“How was that?” Tony asked Steve, “I had far too much fun.”

 

“Yeah, I heard Peggy rip your father a new one. Can’t say that wasn’t entertaining,” Steve told him. He was smiling, but Bucky felt that something about the smile was far too tight. Part of him wanted to ask, the rest of him elected to stay quiet. He didn’t do much talking these days.

 

“Was it okay? Are you okay?” Tony asked Steve.

 

“I’m fine, let's keep going, we’ve only got two left,” he replied. Steve was always one to pretend to be okay at all times. 

 

He stepped off the platform and walked up to where the Stones were, each in its case. He handed Tony the Time Stone and then tried to grab the Soul Stone, his hand was on the case but he couldn’t grip it. He wanted too, but his stomach was turning. He kept seeing Natasha’s smile. He could still hear her voice ringing inside his head _ ‘see you in a minute’  _ Steve would give up just about anything to get her back. He missed her laugh, missed her smile, missed her arms around him all those times he felt like a failure while they on the run and she and Sam had pulled him back from the ledge inside his own head. At least he had Sam back, but it was so unfair that Natasha wasn’t here to see it all. For as much credit as Steve got deep down, he knew she was the best of them. She had carried on when everyone else was falling apart, and even when she too was falling, she powered through. He didn’t even want to imagine a world without Natasha, how was he supposed to live in it?

 

“Steve?” he snapped his head up to find Tony looking at him, “Are you okay?”

 

“I can’t. I can’t, if I go back there she will have been dead for minutes only. Tony, her body will still be warm. She should have never had to do this, we don't trade lives,” he was fighting back tears now.

 

“Hey, no, c’ mon. Steve, sit this one out, let me take the Time Stone back, I’ll be back in a minute.”

 

Steve didn’t reply, he let the tears fall instead,  _ in a minute _ , that’s what she had said. 

 

**

“Mr Stark,” Tony heard as soon as he stepped foot on the roof, “I was expecting your friend,” the woman told him with a soft smile, “Did something happen to him?”

 

“No, not to him,” he told her sadly, “I’m guessing you’re the one I have to return this too,” He said opening the case out to her. 

 

“Yes, thank you,” she said taking the stone and returning it to the Eye, “did it work?”

 

“Mostly. We lost someone. It’s a bittersweet victory.”

 

“Surely one life is a fair price for the millions you saved.”

 

“We don’t trades lives.”

 

“That’s a good answer,” she said.

 

“Yeah. I heard it from the mouth of a good man."

 

She smiled, turning to walk back inside, “You should go back, they’re waiting for you.”

 

“Right,” he pressed the button.

 

_ One to go. _

 

**

 

He comes back and finds Sam with an arm draped over Steve's shoulders, Bucky by his side too. 

 

"Why do things only get cosy when I leave," Tony asks trying to lighten the mood.

 

“We’re taking a break from this,” Steve tells him, “we’re going to Vormir, but I have to do something first.”

 

Steve takes hold of his bracelet, two vials of Pym particles and sets the date. He steps onto the platform and tells Bruce to press the button. His voice is firm and unwavering, Bruce thinks of declining, but he’s seen that look on Steve’s face before. He’s not gonna stop until whatever he wants to do is done. He knows there’s no use arguing with his Captain after his mind’s been made up, so he just presses the button and Steve disappears. 

 

“Bruce, where’d he go?” Sam asks.

 

Bruce looks at the monitor and finds the date, “October 14, 1936.”

 

Sam hears Bucky take a sharp breath next to him, “What? What happened in ‘36?”

 

Bucky looks pale, his eyes wide open and suddenly Sam is concerned, “That’s- that’s the day before his Ma died.”

 

“What? Bruce, press the button,” Sam almost yells. Does he sound as desperate as he feels?

 

Sam doesn’t even know what he’s thinking about. He’s just scared. He’s confused. Why would Steve go back to that? To his mother dying. He doesn’t get it. He’s spiralling, he knows that. But he’s scared. Steve is his best friend. Sam went a long time thinking he’d never get another one of those. He’s not ready to lose Steve, not like this, not without warning. 

 

Not again. 

 

They’ve been through so much together. They still have so much to go through. Together. Steve’s his brother. Sam’s been scared a lot in his life, but never like this. Because he knows that even if Bruce presses the button it means nothing unless Steve does the same. If he chooses to stay and cling to whatever life he had in that time, well, Sam gets it, he thinks. He doesn’t know. He can’t know what something like that feels like. He’s been gone for 5 years but that’s not 70 and Sam would much rather be back in 2018 than in 2023 he can’t be a hypocrite and complain if Steve stays in the past. 

 

Sam is selfish, he decides in the end. He sees Bruce’s finger move to press the button in slow motion. He’s selfish. He has Wanda. And Bucky, even if Bucky’s always been like the odd uncle they only see on Christmas, while Wanda has been his little sister. Sam’s already lost his big sister, he lost Natasha and he didn’t even get to say goodbye. He’s selfish and he can’t lose Steve, he doesn’t want to lose Steve. He’s selfish but he can live with that. Bruce finally pushes the button, and Sam turns his head to the platform so fast his neck hurts a bit. 

 

Now he just has to hope Steve comes back 

 

**

 

This is a terrible idea. 

 

That’s what first crosses Steve’s mind when he sees the hospital. If Steve had a penny for every time those words have crossed his mind his fortune might have rivalled T’Challa’s and Tony’s put together and multiplied by twenty. Ambitious maybe, but Steve has a lot of ideas, and most of them are terrible.

 

It’s almost 2. So Steve doesn’t go in. He remembers this day. A sunny Wednesday, Bucky had gone to the hospital to see Sarah because she had asked Steve to draw her something. So Steve sat on the floor outside their door, like she used to before she got sick, and he drew her the view. ‘It’s terrible,’ Sarah would tell him with a smile on her face, ‘but it’s home’. She wouldn’t let him visit. Too scared that he’d catch something. So Steve drew her the view from what little of the world was theirs. He wanted her to have a piece of home with her. He stayed up all night shading it, perfecting it. Then in the morning, he had breakfast with Bucky and his family, they insisted. Steve gave it to him, so he could take it. Bucky had left the hospital around 2 and gone back to Steve’s place to tell him what she had thought. Bucky said she cried and smiled as she used too. Bucky told him she had asked him to remind Steve that she loved him. Bucky said that she was talking more that day, she was smiling and laughing and sounding like herself. And that one time Steve believed him because his smile had reached his eyes, that one Steve had let himself grow hopeful. He woke up the next morning to someone knocking on the door. One of the nurses that had worked with Sarah before she had fallen ill, he doesn’t remember which one. He just remembers that she had told Steve that Sarah had passed in her sleep that night. That day isn’t clear in his memory, he remembers the nurse and not much else. He just knows that today he can talk to Sarah if he just waits for Bucky to leave the hospital. 

 

This is a terrible idea. Steve’s about to see his mother the day before she dies and he can’t do anything to stop it. He just couldn’t think of a way to do this without opening an alternate timeline, this way there’s no time for anything to happen. 

 

He waits a while longer and finally sees Bucky leave. He smiles at the view, Steve had never noticed how ill-fitting all their clothes were before, and he was glad Bucky had grown out of that fully slicked back hairstyle. It wasn’t doing anyone any favours. 

 

He’s relieved Bucky’s left so there’s nothing stopping him now. It only lasts a second though, there’s  _ nothing _ stopping him now, he either has to go in or go home. It’s tempting. To just leave as if nothing has happened, but Sarah Rogers didn’t raise a coward. So he crosses the road and finds the back entrance to the hospital. He can’t walk around in his cap suit so he sneaks into one of the supply rooms finds a mask for his face and one of the white jackets doctors wear around. He checks each room for the one where they keep the patients with tuberculosis and then he walks in. Unsteady, with his heart hammering in his chest, because it’s been so long. He finds her quickly, her blonde hair sticking out compared to the others. 

 

He walks to her bed, she’s got Steve’s drawing on the pillow next to her face and she’s smiling and Steve feels tears rising in his eyes. He takes off the mask and calls out for her, his voice breaking. 

 

“Steven Grant,” she starts, turning her head towards him, she sounds like she’s about to scold him. And then she sees him. She sees him like this for the first time and the ‘Rogers’ comes out so much more softly. 

 

“What in God’s name happened to you, Stevie?” she asks, there’s a faint smile on her lips, she’s holding out her hand to him. And it’s so tiny. She’s so skinny, not like the woman Steve remembers. But he sits down and takes her hand. Looks into her eyes and they’re hers, exactly the same as Steve’s. Blue, splashed with green. He misses it, the weight of her hand on his. 

 

“I did something stupid,” he tells her instead of explaining himself.

 

“I wasn’t aware you did non-stupid things, dear.”

 

That startles a laugh out of them both. Steve looks around, the room is mostly empty, the two other patients are asleep, so he figures it’s safe to tell her. 

 

“I let a scientist inject me with a serum, I got taller and stronger and I can’t get sick Ma.”

 

“That’s ridiculous,” she says bringing her hands to his face, stroking his cheek, “why would you let a scientist inject you with anything?”

 

“The war,” he says before he remembers it’s ‘36 and the war hasn’t begun yet. He figures he might as well go ahead and tell her everything. That he’s from the future, that her Steve is still tiny, that he joined the army, that he fell in love, that Bucky fell from the train, that he crashed a plane (that one earns him a slap in the chest), that he woke up almost 70 years later, that he fought aliens, and more nazis, and robots, that he found Bucky, that he went to space, why they had to learn how to time travel. He tells her about Sam, Nat and Wanda, Sarah would have loved them. It takes him a while, he’s had an eventful life. 

 

“None of that sounds real, you know?” he’s ready to start saying it is but she holds his cheek and speaks before he can, “but I didn’t raise a lair. You did good, sunshine. You’re a good man.”

 

“You made me one.”

 

“Why are you here?” Sarah Rogers never was one to beat around the bush.

 

“Because I miss you, and you wouldn’t let me here before,” he lies.

 

“You’re a miserable liar, Steven,” she smiles, patting his cheek. 

 

“Yeah that’s your fault too,” he tells her with a smile. He stays quiet for a few seconds, while tears start rising again, this time he lets them fall, “I feel lost.”

 

“Tell me why.”

 

So he does. He tells her he doesn’t know what to do without Natasha. That he can’t bear the thought of fighting without her by his side. That maybe he doesn’t want to fight at all. That he feels guilty that it took them 5 years, that he feels like he’s done too much but not enough. He tells her about the part of him that wants to go back now that he can because Peggy still owes him a dance. He tells her about the part of him that needs to stay. Tells her what he’s lost and what he can’t afford to lose. 

 

“Life is hard,” she tells him, “there’s no right way to do things. And no matter what you do chances are someone will be hurt. All you can do is your best, Steven, I can’t choose for you, son. I think you already know what you want to do and this, all this is just your way of grieving whatever life you’re not going to live. Have you been happy, Steve?”

 

“Yes, I have,” he doesn’t have to think about it. He got a lot more than he ever thought possible. He hurt a lot but he’s been happy too. 

 

“Then you have to choose whatever will make you happy.”

 

Steve feels like a weight has been lifted from his chest, his Ma’s always been good at that. She asks him about his art, and Steve’s ashamed to admit he doesn’t do it much anymore, but she makes him promise he will. She makes him promise a lot of things. Tells him to scold and thank Bucky for staying with him in the war and after too, tells him to thank his friends, his family for taking care of him, for loving him. They talk a lot and laugh, and smile, and Steve’s sure he says he loves her a million times, she says it back a million and one. He stays with her even when she falls asleep, and he never lets go of her hand. He only holds it harder. He watches the sunset through the little window and pulls up the mask whenever a nurse walks in, they never speak to him, the year being what it is, he’s still supposed to talk to them first.

 

They wake her up for dinner. Steve asks her quietly why she believed him. “Because this is meant to be perfect, yes?” she asks gesturing towards his new body, and Steve nods, “You have always been perfect to me. Got a little bit more every time you came home with a broken nose,” the smile on her face is loving, “If I was dreaming, or hallucinating I wouldn’t have changed a thing about you, Stevie.”

 

She falls back asleep, and it's hard. This is the strongest person Steve knows and she’s so tired, she looks so frail. He holds her hand even when it gets dark, and he just looks at her, he commits every inch of her face to memory. Feels the softness of her hair beneath his fingers. He knows it’s coming. He does. That doesn’t make the moment her chest stops rising and falling any easier. He buries his face in her chest and cries. He never got to do it before. After a while, he looks at the clock in the wall and sees that a nurse is meant to be there in about 10 minutes, so he gets up, kisses her hands, her cheeks and her forehead. He thanks her more time, for so much more than the past few hours, says he loves her one more time. 

 

He takes off the white coat and leaves it on the empty bed next to hers, then throws away his mask, takes one last look at her and presses the button.

 

He has a lot to do.

 

**

 

Steve lets himself sit down on the platform when he gets back. His helmet slips back and he doesn’t move. He doesn’t have the strength, not yet, he needs at least a few minutes. Sam and Bucky are making their way towards him. They don’t make any moves to help him up, no. They sit, one on either side of him, and neither of them talks, Tony and Bruce, having sat on the bench nearby, no doubt trying to give them some privacy. 

 

“She said thank you,” Steve tells them, “to the both of you.”

 

Bucky lets his arm slip around Steve’s waist. Sam looks at him, why would Sarah Rogers thank him? She never even met him, “What for?” he asks, his heart is still hammering in his throat, still not quite over what his brain put him through in these past few minutes.

 

“For taking care of me,” Steve tells him, not being able to stop a tear from falling, “for loving me.”

 

Sam doesn’t have words. He does, he loves Steve and he’ll always take care of him. He knows that when he needs it Steve’ll do the same, he has before. He pulls Steve’s head to his shoulder and the three of them just sit there for a while. 

 

“Are you okay?” Bucky asks breaking the silence.

 

Steve blows out all the air in his lungs, “I miss her, Buck, so much, I don’t think I remembered how much until I saw her.”

 

“How long did you stay for?”

 

“‘Till the end.”

 

“Was it worth it?” Bucky asks, even though he already knows it was.

 

“Every second, I needed her to talk the stupid out of me, I know what I have to do now.”

 

When they all stand up Steve walks straight to the Stone, he knows he can touch this one, Clint did, so he foregoes the case. He calls out for Tony, tells him to put his suit on and they both step onto the platform, this is the last stone and Steve has a lot to fix.

 

**

 

They get to Vormir and the mountain is just as big as Clint described, “I’m not climbing that,” Steve tells Tony.

 

“We’ll fly,” so Steve lets Tony hold him and fly them to the top, he feels unsteady the whole way up. 

 

They don’t know what to do once they get there, they’re supposed to wait for a figure to materialize. Then he does and Steve’s eyes go wide in recognition.

 

“Anthony, son of Maria,” The Red Skull says looking at Tony and then he turns to Steve and opens his mouth and before he can speak Steve’s already trying to punch him. Except his arm goes straight through him and Steve almost loses balance and falls. The Red Skull continues, “Steven, son of Sarah,” he says, “You have not changed, Captain.”

 

“Motherfucker,” Steve mumbles under his breath. Of all the idiots he’s fought did it really have to be this one? 

 

“So you two know each other,” Tony says.

 

“Tony!” Steve exclaims, “I can’t hit him, he’s not solid, but your repulsors or whatever that’s energy maybe you can hit him,” he says lifting Tony’s arm and aiming it towards Schmidt.

 

“Hey, I’m not gonna hit him, he might be a good dude, how am I supposed to know?”

 

“A good du- that’s Johann Schmidt!”

 

“Schmidt? Red Skull Schmidt?”

 

“Yes! Was the literal red skull not obvious enough?”

 

“Okay, hold on,” Tony lifts his arm and aims towards Schmidt and fires, but it goes right through him, hitting rocks instead. 

 

“Ah damn it!” Steve groans, “Okay fine, we’re here to return the Stone, can we have Natasha back?”

 

“Captain, your friend knew he couldn’t undo the exchange. As for the Stone, I cannot take it back.”

 

“Why not?” Tony asks.

 

“The Soul Stone is the most complex one of the six. It is not a stone at all. What you’re holding is the energy of the stone fused with the woman’s soul. It is unbreakable, so unless you know of another way to release that energy I cannot have at back. Her soul will be free when a new sacrifice is made, whether the stone is here or not. By then there will be no body for the soul to return too, there never is.”

 

They listen, but really none of them is willing to let it end like that. 

 

“What I hear,” Steve starts, “is that you’re useless and I can’t even beat you up, so can you just disappear?”

 

“Such hostility, Captain. I can go if you wish me too.”

 

“Where’s Natasha?”

 

“There,” he says, pointing towards the cliff’s edge. Then as quickly as he appeared he’s gone.  

 

Tony waits a few seconds before he speaks, “So I guess we’re going down there, uh?”

 

“I guess so.”

 

They fly down and Steve collapses next to her almost instantly. He takes hold of her hand and presses his forehead against hers, “We’re taking her back either way.”

 

“I know. But there has to be a way. A loophole, something,” Steve can hear the tightness in Tony’s voice.

 

“He said that her soul will be free when someone else tries to get the stone, it just won’t have anywhere to go. Surely that means that if there is still a body there’s a way to do it.”

 

They sit, right next to her. Steve never lets go of her hand. Tony never takes his eyes from her. For a while it seems impossible, they try to break the stone, but it’s unyielding. They try and try and try and everything seems too stupid, too unlikely, too impossible.

 

They stay there for hours, all the way until they almost lose hope.

 

“It wasn’t this hard with Vision!” Tony yells, “He had no life at all and we just stuck the mind stone in his head and then Thor shocked him and that was it.”

 

“Tony,” Steve says, “Tony that’s it! We just have to put the stone in her! Her soul will be back where it belongs and the energy’s free to go!”

 

“That sounds too easy,” he says, but he’s smiling.

 

“Doesn’t always have to be hard.”

 

“Do you really think it will work?”

 

“What more do we have to lose?” Steve says. He grabs the stone and puts it against her stomach and presses it in. 

 

Tony is blinded by golden light, when he’s able to see again Steve and Natasha are gone and where they were there’s something, golden too. It grows and grows until it’s everywhere until it looks like it’s nowhere. It must be the stone’s energy Tony thinks. It must have worked. It has too. He presses the button of his comms, “Steve? Steve, where are you?”

 

“Bottom of the mountains. The stone must have moved us,” he says after a few seconds, he sounds out of breath, but Tony can hear the smile in his voice and let’s go of the breath he was holding, “We got her, we got her, she’s not awake yet, but she’s here. Go home Tony, I’m gonna set up her Time GPS and we’ll meet you there.”

 

“See you there, Cap,” he says before pressing the button. 

 

Steve is still holding Natasha’s hand, he can see her chest rising and falling and he doesn’t think he’s ever been this happy in his life. He starts setting the date on her device and she stirs. Steve’s smile grows wider. 

 

Natasha opens her eyes. She feels peaceful like she’s swimming, she can even feel the water under her hands. This isn’t what she thought death would be like, this is calm. She sits up and there looking at her is Steve. For a second she smiles because she’s not alone here like she feared she might have been, but then she realises that she’s dead so if Steve’s here then he must be dead too. She can’t stop the tears from welling up in her eyes, “What happened to you?” she asks him fearfully, with her heart squeezing in her chest, and it’s funny that being dead feels so much like being alive.

 

He moves closer to her, drops whatever he was holding and takes her hand in his, “Nothing. Nothing, I’m okay, Natasha.”

 

“But I’m dead, why are you here?” she’s scared, she’s confused. Is she hallucinating?

 

“You’re not dead.”

 

And his mouth is open, but she doesn’t let him speak, “What? No. No. I am. I have to be. The stone, Steve, it matters more than me. I need to go, let me go, we have to bring them back, we ha-” 

 

He holds her face in his hands. Makes her look deep into his eyes, “We did. Tasha, we did, we won, they’re back.”

 

“What? But, Steve, the stone, he said, the stone keeper he said a soul for a soul.”

 

“We found a way. We got them but we needed you too.”

 

“You got them back?” She doesn’t believe it, it sounds too good to be true, and with her experience that sort of thing often is.

 

“Yes, all of them. We did it. You did it. We can go home now.”

 

Natasha starts crying freely. She only half believes it. The thought of having Sam, Wanda, Bucky, Fury, hell all of them back is too much, “You promise this isn’t a joke?”

 

“On my Ma’s soul,” she believes him now, “Let me just set this,” he says holding her time GPS, “and we can go home,” Steve finishes setting the device and hands it back to her. They stand up and take each other’s hand, press the buttons at the same time. Something blooms in Natasha’s chest. Hope she thinks. She’s tasted it a lot recently. 

 

It’s sweeter this time.

 

**

 

They land in the platform, outside this time. It’s a much better view though Natasha doesn’t get to look around much, she’s suddenly being crushed by Tony in his metal suit. Suddenly she can hear voices. They sound so much like Sam and Bucky, then Tony pulls away, and she remembers they are Sam and Bucky. They brought them back, they brought her back. Bucky gets to her first, pulls her close and Sam doesn’t wait he just presses himself against her back and holds her too. She’s pretty sure all three of them are crying, but that’s no one’s business but their own. 

 

Natasha stays there a while longer, hears about Bruce’s snap, about the battle. They did good. She would have been happy to die for this but getting to enjoy it is so much better. Steve takes Tony away after a little while, says he’s got something to do. But she stays there, looking over the lake with Bruce, Bucky and Sam. They call Wanda and ask her to come over, and they don’t tell her she’s back, they spend a good ten minutes in each other's arms. Bruce calls Fury and Natasha gets to see his face, even if it’s through a screen.

 

“I thought faking deaths was my thing, Romanoff,” he tells her, with the biggest smile Natasha’s ever seen on his face.

 

“You must be rubbing off on me, Nick.”

 

They call Clint, he’s back home, he spends half the time apologizing, and the rest asking how, screaming of joy too. She speaks to Laura and the kids too. She thinks it would have been worth it even if she hadn’t come back. They’re all gonna be okay, that’s more than she ever thought possible. 

 

Steve and Tony come back. Steve holding a briefcase and he tells her to go to medical, they need to make sure she’s okay. Normally Natasha would argue, not today. Today she just lets Bruce take her. Today she’s just going to enjoy being alive. She thinks she’s earned it. 

 

“What’s in the briefcase?” Sam asks.

 

“Stuff,” Steve says, “I have to do something,” he continues, with the type of expression that makes Sam and Bucky think they’re gonna have to do some scolding, “in 1945.”

 

“You have to what?” Bucky asks at the same time Sam says, “Excuse me?”

 

“What could you possibly have to do in ‘45 Steve?” Bucky asks.

 

“I’ve gotta save you, save us.”

 

“Steve you can’t! We have a life here,” Bucky argues, because Sam can’t, no Sam’s about an inch away from falling down a spiral again and he really can’t afford it.

 

“Hear me out first. Changing the past doesn’t change the future, it creates an alternate timeline.”

 

“That makes no sense,” Sam says because he’s paying attention now.

 

“Yeah well, I don’t make the rules. The thing is we can’t go back because then we’re just stealing our lives, their lives. But we can go back and give them new ones, less painful ones.”

 

“You really think we can do that?”

 

“Yeah, Buck.”

 

“Explain your masterplan to me,” Sam tells him.

 

Steve opens the briefcase he’s got a few of Tony’s self-sustaining tablets in there, he tells them they have everything that happened in their time from ‘45 onwards. No wi-fi or external mediums needed to access them. Steve wants to give them to Peggy, let her use them to make the world better. He wants to raid Schmidt’s hideout sooner, with more back up, make it so The Valkyrie never takes off in the first place. 

 

“How do we save me?” Bucky asks him.

 

“We still don’t have a way to stop the train any earlier, so we have to let it happen, exactly as it did, except Sam’s gonna grab you this time. You fall but don’t land, then he’ll take you back to the mountain with the rest of the Commandos.”

 

It sounds good, really it does, and Sam is happy that there’s a way his friends won’t suffer as much. Yet can’t help but think that it was Steve and his righteousness that brought purpose back into his life. He knows he would have kept trying, kept going, but it was Steve and his stupid Nazis that snaped Sam back into shape, it was Steve that gave him a family again. So Sam is happy, but Sam is also afraid of what’ll happen to himself when there’s no one there to remind him what family means. He doesn’t say anything, no it feels too selfish to ask your friends to give up a happy life because you might one day need them. So he puts on a smile that’s only half fake. He lets himself be happy that they’ll be happy, and then he pushes himself to smile through the pain. Sam prides himself in being open, in communicating, for some reason he doesn’t think it’s fair to do it this time.

 

But Steve notices, “I spoke to T’Challa while I was in there,” Steve starts telling him, “he’s coming over now, on that jet of his that takes like an hour to get here. And if we go he’s coming with us. We’ll use Scott’s tech to minimize the jet so we can move around however we want. If you want to do this he’ll go to Wakanda and find a way to make sure his father is safe in 2016.  And he’ll make it so Wakanda can build a relationship with Peggy, with a Hydra free S.H.I.E.L.D., and I’ll make sure Peggy knows they have to be in charge of the Falcon program. You’ll get your wings from Wakanda the first time around and they’ll be better, they’ll be perfect and Riley gets to go home too. ”

 

“Steve,” that’s all he says. He’s not sure why he ever doubted Steve would think of something like this.

 

“We all get something or none of us do. Shit, Sam, I can’t do much about it here but I can get rid of the worst things to ever happen to my best friends in a different timeline. I can make sure Bucky never gets taken, that you never have to see him fall, that Natasha never has to grow up believing she's a weapon, that Wanda never has to lose her family. That’s enough for me. To know that somehow, somewhere none of us have to live with all this pain. But not if you don’t want me too. Not if you’re not with us when we do it. What do you say?”

 

Sam smiles at him, “When do we start?”

**Author's Note:**

> While it felt right to finish it with a reference from another movie initially I was going to have Steve go back in time by himself to talk to Peggy and then give Sam the shield, but the story took a life of its own. I am open to the idea of writing the new 'time-heist' if I have the time and inspiration. Right now I just want to explain that one of the things I most disliked about the ending was how Peggy was stripped of her agency, she has no lines, and I’ve thought it over a lot of times in many different ways, and there’s always something wrong about the way it ended. If I never do write the new Time Heist what would have happened is that 2023!Steve would have told Peggy about her husband and her family so it was up to her to choose to be with Steve or Daniel (which is who I believe she married because fuck marvel and their nonsensical time loop theory) or with whoever else wanted too. I just wanted to make clear that this was not an open ending, this isn’t me pushing Steve into Peggy’s life. This is me sparing Steve a lot of heartache and me giving Peggy a choice.
> 
>  
> 
> [ My Writing Blog](https://the-hell-i-cant-im-a-captain.tumblr.com)  
> [ My Main Blog](https://its-a-pretty-interesting-wall.tumblr.com)  
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